The Vidiot's weekly blog:

What pissed me off this week? 8/8/2005

(updated every Monday at some point during the day)

...'cause I'm angry and my friends are sick of listening to me...

Cost of the War in Iraq

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This stirs up all sorts of shit for me. Jeebus. Peter Jennings died. And why did he die? Lung cancer. And why did he have lung cancer? Cigarettes. Those damn things. Killed my dad as well as one of our most watchable anchor men. If you still smoke, stop. It'll kill you otherwise. (Here's a link to Jennings' last appearance on the Daily Show.)

Otherwise, nothing in particular "got" to me this week... besides GW I mean. Honestly, I don't enjoy hating the pResident. I want to find something redeemable about the guy, but he really challenges me. I mean, he actually thinks that Intelligent Design should be taught! Hullo!? If anyone could provide any experimental evidence that's NOT the bible, then fine, teach away. Without proof though, it's just stupid and it will of course dumb down and already dumbed down educational system. Of course, this is coming from a guy who goes on vacation to a phony ranch for 5 weeks... in a row! I get 5 weeks, but I'm not allowed to take it all at once. (Though, arguably I should since I'll never take a maternity leave. But that's a different argument.)

Meanwhile, as the investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame heats up (and as rumors of indictments fly around the net)(Go here if that one doesn't work and here for a parsing) the republicans are lining up to attack the prosecutor, Fitzgerald. And Bush is looking to make a skull & bones guy Fitzgerald's new boss. Can you say "obstruction of justice?" Not like he hasn't done it before, for Abramoff. Worked like a charm too.

I guess I could mention Bob Novak's little melt-down the other day. But I figure, so many others have already talked about it, why should I?


Time-waster of the Week: Lighter Tricks

Video of the Week: Horten

Must-Read of the Week: Sibel Edmonds Speaks

Python site of the Week: Sketches

Railroad Site of the Week: MP&N Railroad

Compare and Contrast Site of the Week: Anti-Japanese Propaganda

Video to Forward of the Week: Hitchhiker

Suit of the Week: Coke Cans

Contest of the Week: Simply Fired

Book of the Week: Walter the Farting Dog

Unexplainable Site of the Week: Dog on a Hog

Weird Site of the Week: Animal Costumes

Blog of the Week: Ideas that Should Exist

Utility Site of the Week: 200 Amazing Secrets

Satire of the Week: The Devil and Dick Cheney


War Crime of the Week

It's embarrassing that not only have we not signed the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, but that we openly flaunt that fact by planning to produce more land mines.

Excerpt: The Bush Administration appears poised to resume the production of antipersonnel mines, Human Rights Watch said today in a new briefing paper. The United States, which has not manufactured antipersonnel mines since 1997, will make a decision in December whether to begin production of a new antipersonnel mine called Spider. The Pentagon has requested a total of $1.3 billion for development and production activities for another new antipersonnel mine called the Intelligent Munitions System, with a full production decision expected in 2008.

Didn't we spend a lot of money to remove land mines in the last decade? Now we're making more? WTF?


Outrage of the Week

What is up with Texas?

Excerpt: Dallas law cracks down on feeding the homeless


War Prep - Iran

So, here's an odd example of a major paper -- in this case the WaPo -- actually reporting the news. In this story, they report that Iran is actually 10 years away from having a nuclear bomb, not a lot sooner like the administration would have us believe. (I checked. The Four Horsemen weren't galloping down Atlantic Ave.)

Excerpt: A major U.S. intelligence review has projected that Iran is about a decade away from manufacturing the key ingredient for a nuclear weapon, roughly doubling the previous estimate of five years, according to government sources with firsthand knowledge of the new analysis.

Not that you could tell by the way the Administration is singing "Bomb bomb bomb. Bomb bomb Iran."

Excerpt:The latest U.S. media uproar about Iran's nuclear program is part of a dream starting to come true for neocons in Washington who fantasize about "regime change" in Tehran. More realistically, for the nearer term, the Bush administration is setting the agenda for a U.S. air attack on Iran.

And not letting Iran's leader address the UN.

Excerpt: The Bush administration is considering taking the unprecedented step of preventing a visting head of state from addressing the United Nations in New York by denying a visa to Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran's new elected conservative president.

Meanwhile, Halliburton is making money off of Iran.

Excerpt: Scandal-plagued Halliburton, the oil services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney was secretly working with one of Iran’s top nuclear program officials on natural gas related projects and, allegedly, selling the officials' oil development company key components for a nuclear reactor, according to Halliburton sources with intimate knowledge into both companies’ business dealings.

So, to recap: The administration is lying again, they're harassing a country's leader AND Halliburton is making scratch on the side. Sounds like we're going to war with Iran!


The Impossible Dream

There might be some hope on the Bolton front. Even though Bush totally did the wrong thing and appointed Bolton during a recess, the UN COULD technically reject him.

Excerpt:The UN doesn’t have to accept John Bolton’s credentials. This may come as a rude surprise to George W. Bush, who this morning appointed Bolton U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, despite his rejection several weeks ago by the Senate. The unintended consequence of Bolton’s appointment, which is creating a lightning rod at the UN for resentment, anger and fear of Bush Administration foreign policy, is a possible move by the General Assembly to limit U.S. actions in the Middle East and Persian Gulf.

Will they? Probably not. Would it be cool if they did? You betchya.


One more jab at smokers

As if a connection between impotence and cigarette smoking wasn't enough to get anyone to quit smoking, now they've found a connection between belly fat and smoking.

Excerpt: Exposure to cigarette smoke raises the risk among teens of metabolic syndrome, a disorder associated with excess belly fat that increases the chances of heart disease, stroke and diabetes, according to a study.


By the playbook.

So, why the coup in Mauritania?

Excerpt:A group of Mauritanian army officers announced the overthrow of the president on Wednesday, hours after troops took control of the national media and the army chief of staff headquarters in the capital of this oil-rich Islamic nation.

Well, there is oil there after all.

Excerpt;In 2001, exploratory oil wells in tracts 80 km offshore indicated potential extraction at current world oil prices. A new investment code approved in December 2001 improved the opportunities for direct foreign investment. Ongoing negotiations with the IMF involve problems of economic reforms and fiscal discipline. Substantial oil production and exports probably will not begin until 2006.

As well as we had troops in place last June.

Excerpt:Following the recent slaying of 17 government soldiers in a terrorist attack on a military base in northern Mauritania, the United States has sent a contingent of 2,000 soldiers, as well as helicopters, to the area, the United Arab Emirates daily 'Al-Kalheej' reported on Friday. The US troops will use military bases set up in the desert in Mauritania and Mali three years ago as part of the war on terror.

Just another one of our foreign policy excursions.


I wish we'd get our shit together.

When one door closes...

Excerpt:Instead, the group this week began sending e-mails to most of the 28 people who make up the remaining ACT staff warning that their paychecks would stop at the end of August. All the state offices have been, or are soon to be, closed.

another one go open.

Excerpt: At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute $1 million or more apiece to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up over the past three decades.

Maybe they should look at this guy's ideas.

Excerpt: As his title implies, Mr Haass does not believe the US should surrender its post-1945 leading role. But he suggests its national interests will be best served if hubristic ideas about American exceptionalism, indispensability and unilateralism are tempered by more pragmatic, mutually beneficial cooperation with emerging powers such as Europe and China.


$audi Family

Jaun Cole parses the new Saudi situation.

Except: The good news is that Fahd's successor, King Abdullah, is a far more cautious man, not given to his half-brother's dangerous adventurism. His ascension -- in fact, he has held power for a long time -- gives the United States an opportunity to improve relations with Saudi Arabia. As America faces the long, daunting task of recovering from George W. Bush's catastrophic foreign-policy blunders, solidifying relations with this key, if problematic, ally is high on the list of priorities.

Though, if the Saudi's start pulling money out of our country, our economy will be in even more trouble than it already is.

Excerpt: Saudi Arabia said Sunday it was working to bring back to the kingdom a total of $360 billion invested abroad in the last 18 months.

And don't forget about that real estate bubble.

Excerpt:So the news that the U.S. housing bubble is over won't come in the form of plunging prices; it will come in the form of falling sales and rising inventory, as sellers try to get prices that buyers are no longer willing to pay. And the process may already have started.


Real women

I was just talking about this ad campaign the other day. I thought it was great to see women with real bodies, and not those emaciated, teen-aged models.

Excerpt:There's no doubt that the ads are striking. This is, of course, entirely a function of the casting choices. If the wardrobe, lighting, and graphic design remained the same but these ads featured gorgeous, size-0 models, no one would give this campaign a moment's thought.


News of the Weird

Did it or didn't it? I wish I could've seen it.

Excerpt: A statue of the Virgin Mary has reportedly "become flesh" and started to dance.

Like Seinfeld said, there's good naked, and there's bad naked. This sounds like bad naked.

Excerpt: A BALLET performance has caused uproar after its stars stripped off on stage. During Monday night's performance of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet by the Russian National Ballet Theatre, in Hobart, lead dancers Maxim Romanov and Ekaterina Shalyapina disrobed.


There's a joke in here somewhere. It's just too hot in here to come up with it on my own.

Excerpt: Two heterosexual Canadian men are to tie the knot to enjoy the tax benefits of being a married couple.

 

Previous rants


What do we do about all of this crap? I have no idea. Part of me wants to start teach-ins  at my local pub. Just go to the bar, rant and rave and inform the idiots who still think Brian Williams is telling them the truth. I sincerely believe that if we protected the voting rights of the underprivileged that any Democrat could SWEEP any election. I don't think Democrats are the answer. But they are at least a start.  

At the very least, point your CNN-loving friends to my links page. Just getting started in reading alternate news sites gets people thinking. I have one friend who was very happy-go-lucky, thinking ol' Greta was telling the whole truth until I opened up his eyes a bit. Now, he's all depressed. He'll get over it. You gotta' get depressed before you get angry and you gotta' get angry before you can accomplish anything. We're all in mourning. We have to move through the steps. But we gotta' hurry it up.

Read. Inform. Spread the word. Even if it means your friends avoid you for awhile. If they really love you, they'll start to listen.

 

"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385): A Reconstruction Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use of military for civilian law enforcement also applies to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying permissible military assistance to civilian law enforcement agencies--including the Coast Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). For example, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETS) serve aboard Navy vessels and perform the actual boardings of interdicted suspect drug smuggling vessels and, if needed, arrest their crews). Positive results have been realized especially from Navy ship/aircraft involvement.

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Who am I?:

I am a biker chick who lives in NYC. This blog is about current events and my left-leaning, acerbic spin on those events. Nobody pays me anything to do this. Nobody tells me what to write. I will NEVER tout anything for anybody's money! EVER!


Use this instead of Google:

Clusty.com

These sites are good at culling stories from a multitude of media sites:

buzzflash.com
unknownnews.net
rawstory.com


Here are some excellent blogs:

Bartcop
Daily Kos
Atrios
Tacitus
Josh Marshall
Two Glasses
Brad DeLong
The Wonkette
Urban Survival
Greg Palast
Mark Crispin Miller


Link exchange:

Ilia Dreams Blog
Iraq War Blog
BushVote.com
Dommecile.com
Funny Farm

media-bias exposed:

dailyhowler.com


these are good left-wing journalism sites:

onlinejournal.com
counterpunch.com
thenation.com
inthesetimes.com
tompaine.com
commondreams.org
truthout.com
guerrillanews.com


a little more to the left:

wsws.org
indymedia.org


different:

whatreallyhappened.com
almartinraw.com

more different :

surfingtheapocalypse.com


really different:

goroadachi.com/etemenanki/

 

and for godsakes, stay away
from FOX NEWS,  MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
w atch the BBC news
or ITN news instead.

if you must succumb to reading a newspaper: 

www.guardian.co.uk 


or any other paper in another fucking country. All of our newspapers are owned by the same idiots that own the TV stations (and whose companies are diversified in industries that support the war machine) so all of the news is all the same CRAP.